4 Attachment(s)
Little River and Jug Hole 2/19/12
I regret not having the time to post a comprehensive trip report as I am usually wont to do, but this abbreviated one will have to suffice in the interim...
I arrived at LR earlier than Jeff (Kidsdream on CDF) and I originally planned, so I began setting up my gear and talked with a few apprentice cave students who were about to enter. They joked about potentially ruining any video I might take (they saw my helmet setup with GoPro camera and video lights attached) due to the silt they were likely to stir up. I told them that that is all part of the process; I have kicked up enough silt in this cave to fill a dump truck.
When Jeff arrived, I had already set my buddy bottle and O2 bottle down by the water. He was to be diving SM 95s while I dove BM 120s. To ease the process of any potential OOA emergencies, it was decided that we would both be capable of self-rescue, hence my 2nd source of gas in the BB. I also had agreed to check out an OW reg my friend left with me before he attempted to use it down in the Bahamas, so I rigged it to a steel 72 and added that to the gear list.
Having never dove with (or even seen) each other, Jeff and I slowly acquainted ourselves with one another and we decided to make this a particularly easy (and hence, short) dive, since our primary goal was to get some video at Jug Hole later that day. We agreed that we would just swim the mainline up to the Tee, then take the Serpentine Tunnel into the Florida Room, and then turn the dive once we reached 35 minutes of bottom time. He would lead the dive up to that point while I would then lead us back through the Merry-Go-Round during the exit.
We made our way into the water and suited up, Jeff with his rather uncomplicated and simple setup of an SMS100 rig with steel 95s and an AL40 O2 bottle. I had my BM 120s with an AL80 buddy bottle, the steel 72 with the OW reg, and my other steel 72 for O2 deco. Like a fool, I volunteered to run the reel.
I tied off to the log in the basin and made my way to the bottom of the cavern, staying well to the right of the line installed by the class that was already in the cave. We dropped off our O2 bottles and I motioned for Jeff to lead the way in. He kept a great pace in and I had no trouble following him encumbered with 2 additional tanks. Once we reached the bottom of the syndrome shaft, I removed the OW tank and left it attached to the mainline. My intent was to retrieve it later upon exiting and breathe from it from that point until reaching my deco depth to determine if the OW reg was "sea-worthy".
After I shed the OW bottle, Jeff picked up the pace ever so slightly and we made our progress further in. The flow was incredibly low and we had no difficulty swimming the myriad twists and turns up to the Florida Room. We never saw the cave class up to our maximum penetration, which was just past the 1st jump to the Small Creek Tributary line. Like I said before, we were really taking our time, sightseeing as much as possible, and not at all worried about maximum penetration. At that point I noticed my DC read 35 minutes and I motioned for us to turn the dive.
Now leading the way out, I had to make a conscious effort to slow down and egress at an otherwise sane pace. Usually I really crank it when exiting LR, mainly due to the normally high flow and deco obligation that the cave places upon you. But all was going well up to that point and I saw no reason to exert any additional energy. When passing the inbound jump to the Mud Tunnel, I noticed a bright pink backup reg necklace lying next to the gap reel placed by someone. It looked as if it had been accidentally dropped and I decided to remove it from the cave.
an aside: Jeff and I joked later on the surface that it would be unlikely that any diver would claim it if I asked around!
Upon reaching the bottom of the Syndrome Shaft, I retrieved the OW tank and breathed from those regs, alternating them as I slowly ascended up the line. These were some older Genesis and IDI regs from circa mid 80s and the difference in breathing ease from my Scubapro G250s was like night and day. Ouch! ...the things I endure to help my friends!
We made our way back to the cavern where I then picked up my O2 bottle and began reeling out, while Jeff had smartly made his way to our 20' stop. I left the reel perched on the limestone shelf until we finished our 13 minutes of deco. We exited and I removed the reel, we surfaced, and then talked about the upcoming dive at Jug Hole.
We recharged back in Fort White with sandwiches before heading over to Jug Hole. Upon arriving, another dive team was in the process of packing their gear up after having already dove it. Jeff and I kitted up and prepared ourselves for the 1400 foot journey to Jug Hole.
When we made it to the spring, there were some swimmers there and we spoke with them while getting our gear prepped. They were enthralled by the type of gear we had and the fact that we were shooting video for this dive. We had some good conversations before we finally slipped into the water and began our descent.
Jeff was using his same rig and I was now using my Hollis HT1 Fronkensteen SM rig with steel 95s. Since Jeff hadn't been in Jug a great number of times, I recommended that we just doa normal dive, not really trying to make the extra effort to follow a plan for video. I would just follow behind him and capture what I could.
I descended into Jug and made my way to the bottom, out of the way of the entrance in an alcove where I could film Jeff making his desccent in the rays of sunlight dancing in the cavern. We had made it to Jug at the perfect time, and the sun was cooperating fully with our plan. As we discussed on the surface, Jeff waited an appropraite amount of time to allow me to setup the scene before he made his descent. Upon reaching the bottom, he tied in his primary reel to a log on the floor and began his entry into the cave.
Upon entering the darkness, I realized right away that capturing good video today would be an exceptional challenge, The flow was very low and there was a considerable amount of silt in the water column. I endeavored to persevere and kept following Jeff in. He tied into the main line just past the Grim Reaper sign and he remembered my advice to use the slug trail to the left of the main line. I, however, needed to follow the path of the main line in order to capture decent video, which was hard to come by. We left the bedding plane and then made our way to the Diamond Sands restriction. Here, Jeff politely hovered to the side and motioned for me to enter first, so that I could get video of him coming through the restriction on the other side.
I obliged him and then turned the camera onto myself as I negotiated my path forward. This was actually some of the best video I was able to get, due to the higher flow and diminished amount of silt in there. He followed through (rather expertly, I might add, as he took about 1/3 the time to get through as I did) and then retook the lead. Silt clouds abounded everywhere so I was left with few options of lighting up Jeff to capture video. It was a helter-skelter attempt by me to alternately carry the camera at such an angle as to keep my helmet-mounted lights from creating back scatter.
Upon reaching the end of the main line, we turned and repeated the process in reverse. I did get some pretty decent wide angle shots on the way out and some unintended great angles when I exited the Diamond Sands.
We made our way back to the cavern and I again found a nice alcove to hover in while Jeff made a leisurely swim in the sunlight rays before we exited. It was a great dive and I hope to be able to piece together some decent video shortly. In the meantime, here are a couple of screenshots I snagged from the video.
Attachment 5820Attachment 5821Attachment 5822Attachment 5823
